Toyota closure: Loss of car manufactoring jobs unlikely to make impact on economy

What will the economy look like without the three big car manufacturers and suppliers? Pretty much the same as it does now.

Toyota closure: Loss of car manufactoring jobs unlikely to make impact on economy

11 February 2014Peter Martin

What will the economy look like without the three big car manufacturers and suppliers? Pretty much the same as it does now.

Twenty years ago manufacturing provided one in every seven Australian jobs, around 13.5 per cent. Today it's 8 per cent.

Two industries have filled the gap: professional, scientific and technical services, whose share of employment has climbed from 5.5 per cent to 7.7 per cent, and healthcare and social assistance, whose share has climbed from 10 per cent to 12 per cent. Australia has become more of a brain-work economy and more of a service economy.

And the transition isn't new. The loss of the further 50,000 jobs tied up in car manufacture isn't going to change things much further. Manufacturing employs 934,000 in total.

Steve Bracks, the former Victorian premier who chaired the Bracks automotive review for the Rudd government, believes some of the component manufacturers will stay. Futuris Automotive sells seats, trims and upholstery worldwide. Air International exports airconditioning systems.

Each month around 350,000 Australians leave their jobs and 350,000 gain them. A loss of an extra 50,000 over a number of years as the car manufacturing industry closes would scarcely make a dent, especially if - as is likely - many of the sacked workers move to other jobs.

But total jobs growth has stalled. The number of Australians in work is slipping at the rate of 600 per month. Tony Abbott's promise to ''produce 1 million new jobs in five years'' is one he won't keep.

In Parliament on Tuesday, Treasurer Joe Hockey talked tough, saying ''now is the time to fix the budget''. But with jobs growth dead and the collapse of car manufacture making things a little worse, there's a limit to how much it's wise to cut back in his first budget in May.

Another previously legislated measure will depress the economy in July. The Medicare levy will climb from 1.5 per cent of most salaries to 2 per cent to fund the national disability insurance scheme.

Budgetary pressures are likely to place on hold another move he could otherwise make to salvage something positive out of the departure of Ford, Holden and Toyota.

He could axe tariffs on imported cars. After all, there will soon be no local industry left to protect. It would bring down the landed price of each car 5 per cent. He could also abolish the so-called luxury car tax, currently at 33 per cent.

But it would cost him serious money he doesn't have. If he did abolish tariffs he would have to replace them with something else. As far as revenue-raisers go, tariffs on imported cars are pretty efficient, right up there with the goods and services tax. He wouldn't want to replace them with something worse.

The impending departure of the big three car manufacturers has given him another opportunity though. Last year Labor's Chris Bowen announced a plan to raise $1.8 billion by properly taxing cars provided to workers as part of salary packages. Abbott and Hockey opposed it, arguing concessional treatment was needed to ensure cars continued to be made in Australia. It isn't now.